Tag Archives: BBC World Service

Brian Hongwe reports on importance of shortwave radios in Zimbabwe

Many thanks to Dave for sharing this excellent radio documentary from the BBC World Service show, The Fifth Floor. In this brief report, reporter Brian Hongwe clearly explains why police are seizing shortwave radios and arresting those who own them in the run up to the Zimbabwe elections.

Hint: Information = power / Shortwave radio = information / Those in power fear shortwave radio

Click here (or use the embedded player below) to listen to this short segment or listen to the entire program–definitely worth it!– on The Fifth Floor’s web page.

This post has been tagged in our ever-growing collection labeled: Why Shortwave Radio?

Spread the radio love

Shortwave Radio Recordings: BBC World Service to the British Antarctic Survey

5 Replies

View of Bird Island, South Georgia, where one of the British Antarctic research stations is located. (Source: British Antarctic Survey)

Mentioned earlier today, here is the recording of the BBC World Service’s thirty minute broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey. I was able to receive a relatively strong signal at 21:30 UTC on 9,890 kHz from the World Service’s Wooferton transmission site.

Click here to download the full recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. I will also post this on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Spread the radio love

Catch the BBC’s annual broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey Team

7 Replies

Halley VI: The British Antarctic Survey’s new base (Source: BBC)

Every year, the BBC broadcasts a special program to the 41 scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team.

The BBC will play music requests and send special messages to the team of 41. It’s guaranteed to be quirky, nostalgic and certainly DX worth catching.

The British Antarctic Survey celebrates today (their longest, darkest winter day) with the same enthusiasm as Christmas. The BBC noted:

The base commanders rise early to cook breakfast for their staff, presents are exchanged, there are sports and even, weather permitting, a mad streak in the snow! Feasting continues before they gather round a shortwave set to listen to the traditional broadcast packed with greetings from their family and friends back home together with music requests and messages from the British Antarctic Survey and a few celebrities. Finally the Antarctic horror movie The Thing is screened. For those who know the plot, perhaps it is just as well there are no longer sledge dogs in Antarctica…

The great part? You too can catch the broadcast if you’re in the right part of the world to hear it. I’ll attempt to record either the Ascension Island or Woofferton broadcast myself, if conditions make it possible.

The program will air today, June 21, 2013 at 21:30 UTC on the following frequencies:

7,350 kHz; Ascension; 207°
9,890 kHz; Woofferton; 182°
5,965 kHz; Dhabayya; 203°

Many thanks to Sheldon Harvey for the reminder and for especially confirming the broadcast time. Even though this event happens on the same day each year (ironically on my birthday) I often forget to catch it myself.

Please submit your recordings of this broadcast to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Spread the radio love

After listener feedback, BBC World Service restores MW service to Israel and Middle East

Leave a reply

Antennas-001 SWLing Post reader David commented on June 8 that he heard the return of the BBC World Service on 1,323 khz BBC Zygi, Cyprus relay.

The BBC Media Centre confirms:

The BBC World Service has confirmed that MW transmissions to Israel and other parts of the Middle East will resume for 10hrs per day on 1323kHz starting on Friday 7 June.

This will give listeners breakfast listening and then drive-time and evening coverage from about 4pm to 10pm.

The morning hours are as 02:59:30 to 06:59:30 GMT and the evening schedule will be 12:59:30 – 18:59:30 GMT.

Steve Titherington, World Service Commissioning Editor, says: “We had a huge response to the end of MW transmissions in Israel and we are responding positively to listeners’ demands for a return to of the BBC broadcasts. Cutbacks mean we can’t return to a full day-long schedule, but we will broadcast at times when we hope audiences are most likely to listen. We want to thank our listeners for their feedback and would welcome any further comment they have about how suitable these new broadcasting times are for tuning into the BBC World Service.”

As previously announced four hours per day of World Service English will continue on 720kHz until 22:59:30 on 21 June.

Spread the radio love

MP criticism over BBC World Service’s uncertain budget

3 Replies

(Source: BBC News)

Uncertainty about the BBC World Service budget as the corporation prepares to take on full funding of the service is “unacceptable”, MPs have warned.

Foreign Office funding for the service will stop in April 2014 when it will be paid for out of the licence fee.

The Foreign Affairs Committee said the World Service could not “plan properly” because the BBC had yet to issue an operating licence to define its budget.

[…]A World Service spokesman said the change in funding next April, when it will be integrated with the BBC’s domestic news services, “provides certainty and stability”.

But the committee of MPs said it did not see how the World Service could prepare when it would not know “either the priorities, targets or characteristics which have been set for it, or its budget” until a few months before the change came into force.

[…]The committee also warned that, while it was logical to withdraw shortwave radio in dwindling markets where audiences had access to the internet and TV, such services still had a place.

“The World Service must continue to take into account significant audiences in certain parts of the world, such as rural India and Africa, who currently rely on shortwave radio,” it added.

The committee’s report, which also covers the work of the Foreign Office and the British Council, also warns that the UK risks losing credibility if more senior diplomats are not fluent in a range of languages.

Read the full article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22208426

Thanks for the tip, Andy.

Spread the radio love

BBC World Service program discusses Chinese jamming

Leave a reply

In the latest episode of Over To You, host Rajan Datar discusses how the BBC World Service’s shortwave transmissions are being affected by jamming in parts of Asia. It’s a short but informative episode.

Even Datar and his guest, Nigel Fry (Head of Distribution for BBC Global News), could appreciate the irony that while China is investing a substantial number of resources in jamming BBC WS English broadcasts, the BBC World Service is voluntarily trimming their English offerings anyway. What a gift to those in China trying to control access to the global press!

Thanks to the Southgate ARC for the tip.

(Source: Over To You)

Over To You explores the way that the World Service’s shortwave transmissions are being affected by jamming in parts of Asia, following up from an email from a listener in West Bengal who was having problems listening to the service. With the help of the World Service’s head of business development, we find out how jamming of the World Service shortwave transmissions inside China is spilling over into neighbouring countries, and explore what the BBC can do to redress the situation through international organisations.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

Spread the radio love

VOA protests jamming of English service to China

Leave a reply

(Source: VOA)

The Voice of America is protesting new jamming of its English broadcasts in China.

VOA Director David Ensor condemned the new interference and said the U.S. government broadcaster is working with experts to determine the precise origin of the jamming. He said “the free flow of information is a universal right and VOA will continue to provide accurate and balanced information on platforms that can reach audiences in areas subject to censorship.”

The U.S.-funded VOA is not the only victim of jamming. The British Broadcasting Corporation said this week its shortwave English radio broadcasts also are being jammed in China.

The BBC said that while it is not possible to know who is doing the jamming, “the extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China.”

VOA broadcast engineers say Radio Australia also is being jammed.

At VOA headquarters in Washington, engineers say that while the agency’s Chinese-language broadcasts are routinely jammed in China, its English broadcasts usually are not. They noticed the jamming of the English programs about a month ago and say it appears to use a new technology.

Many countries have used various methods to jam VOA broadcasts for decades, especially during the Cold War when VOA broadcast heavily into the former Soviet Union and other countries under Communist control. Now, its Persian satellite television broadcasts into Iran are frequently jammed, as are VOA Horn of Africa broadcasts to Ethiopia.

Note our previous article on the topic of harmful interference from China.

Spread the radio love